The Feather And The Tongue
by Samantha Aiden Williams
Summary: How will two ex-espada who decided to help the shinigami with their fight against Aizen change the fate of those involved with Ichigo Kurosaki?
1. Untitled

Plumeso backed down from her objective. She was an ex-espada, and she had no right to pursue this intruder. But it was so tempting. He had such a strong reiatsu and she was feeding off of it. She shoved her kunai back into its garter sheath, and tip-toed up the sand dune. Just peeking over the top she could see the shinigami and hear him pacing in the sand. Las Noches was a huge desert, and Plumeso could use that to her advantage. She could also tell that she was about the same level as this shinigami, if not a little better.

She was expelled from her position as the dos espada during a failed mission on the planet earth. Plumeso had had the responsibility of capturing two persons with high reiatsu. Unfortunately, the two persons had been so well protected that she was unable to capture them. Running away to avoid being killed was how she had lost her title. But at least she was still alive.

The intruder she pursued was tall. He wore strange hair pieces, and a white scarf that matched the tubes. Plumeso looked around, then, pounced down on his right.

"Hello there, allow me to introduce myself. Plumeso Qintisenia, ex-espada dos." She took a low swing, aiming for the back of his legs with her bone machete. At the last minute, the man was gone, and then had reappeared behind her. With a fast blow, he brought his sword down on Plumeso's shoulder. Plumeso blocked the blow with her kunai.

"Byakuya Kuchiki, Captain of the sixth squad." The man said.

"You're cute; I'll try not to aim for your face." With that Plumeso swung hard. Byakuya blocked the swing with his soul cutter, and with a push, sent Plumeso flying a bit. "Hehe…you're strong too. I'm not going easy on you." The shinigami came closed to the ex-espada. Byakuya took a flash-step around Plumeso and aimed a stab for her upper back. When he should've pierced her skin, she was gone.

Byakuya looked around. "Where'd she go?" he asked himself. Closing his eyes, he focused on sensing her reiatsu. She was no where to be found! He was kind of disappointed, she had seemed strong, and it would've made for a good fight. He supposed she was cowardly though, and that was why she had run away. Byakuya continued walking, checking behind his back every so often.

Plumeso sat in the cave. She had run away ever since she had felt the sudden surge in spiritual pressure. It hadn't been coming from Baki whatever his name was, and it hadn't been coming from Oscurgua. Oscurgua had been training with her for years, and she would've known if the had been inside of Cura. Cura was her best friend. When Plumeso had run away from the espada, Oscurgua had run away with her.

"Cura? Are you in here?" She got no response. Maybe Cura was out training in the sand and that raise in pressure had been Cura.

"Sorry, I heard you calling?" Oscurgua had suddenly appeared her dark skin silhouetted at the mouth of the cave.

"I was just wondering if that raise in pressure was you." Plumeso sighed.

"Nope, not me hun." Oscurgua looked down at Plumeso sitting on the floor. She looked too young to have been an espada, but she had been one. Plumeso looked up at Oscurgua with sadness.

"I ran away from a fight." Plumeso stroked the hard scar that she had on her face. She had kept it, not allowing Oscurgua to heal it, because it reminded her of how she had fallen from her rank.

"Well, go get it back love." Oscurgua brushed the length of Plumeso's braided hair that came down with her bangs. "You're so strong that who ever that guy is will be shaking in his boot to surrender."

"He's kind of cute, you know." Plumeso pulled her kunai back out of its calf sheath and wiped it off on the feather that dangled from its handle.

"Well, will you let that stop you again?"

"No….I guess not."

"Good, then go angel, and let the wind carry under your feather." Oscurgua pulled Plumeso up with her strong dark hands and shoved her out of the mouth of the cave. Plumeso turned her back on Oscurgua, and walked toward the high reiatsu she could sense.

Byakuya walked with meaning towards the door of the huge building. He almost thought that he had felt the return of the young arrancar, but it had seemed to only be his imagination. Closing his eyes, he tried to search for his comrades, but to no avail. Proceeding, he walked west towards the thinnest wall.

Plumeso tried to follow the shinigami, but he had seemed to have gotten too far away for her to sense his movements. She, instead, followed the second highest reiatsu. As Plumeso got to the peek of the sand dune, she saw a man with spiked black hair. On the end of each spike of hair hung a delicate bell that should rattle with every movement. But at that point he was just standing there, just perfectly still, staring away in one direction. On his back sat a small girl, with pink hair. She looked like a baby, and yet, what was she doing with such a scary looking guy?

"I hear someone." The big guy said, his name happened to be Kenpachi Zaraki. "Do you hear it too?"

"Yup!" The little girl, Yachiru Kusajishi by name, said.

Plumeso quickly ducked behind the sand dune that she was standing on. She had thought for sure that she had gotten down before anyone saw, but when Plumeso peeked back over the dune, the scary man was making his way up the dune. "Shit." Plumeso muttered under her breath. She figured now that she had two choices. Fly the place, or fight. She was hoping that she would have to fight, two against one, but it was the least cowardly. She stood up straight, and faced the man who approached.

"Are you an arrancar?" Kenpachi asked.

"Yes." Plumeso answered.

"Are you part of the espada?"

"I used to be..." She said, pointing to the two tattooed on her leg.

"Good, this will be a great fight." Kenpachi said, with a huge teethy smile.

Plumeso bowed. "I am afraid that I have no business with you." Using shunpo, she stepped around to the other side of the wall like man. Once on the other side, she swung her machete straight for the man's side. In the last moment, he blocked with his sword. "You're fast." Plumeso took a big leap backwards.

"Don't run away from me, coward!" Kenpachi yelled.

"I'm not," Plumeso responded. "Cero." The huge cero zoomed towards Kenpachi Zaraki, nearly searing off his eyebrows, but he had cleared out of the way before it hit him.

"You're going to have to try a lot harder then that." He cackled.

"Why's your comrade sitting over there?" Plumeso gestured towards Yachiru.

"She doesn't fight." Kenpachi sighed.

"Will you care if I take her hostage?"

"Don't you dare." Kenpachi snarled, and took a slash with his sword, catching the edge of Plumeso's mask. It cracked a bit, but no lasting damage.

"You didn't..." Plumeso reached up a felt the crack. "YOU DID!" And with that, she screamed her machete's name. "What do you think?" Plumeso had retreated to high overhead where Kenpachi could not reach her with his sword. "I've hollowfied!" She grinned from behind her full face bone mask. "Do you like the wings? How about my sword!" Plumeso dove towards Kenpachi clubbing him hard with the dull side of her machete. He flew towards Yachiru, but stopped himself before they collided.

"That's all you got?" Kenpachi pounced, sending himself closer to Plumeso, and swung hard. Plumeso dodged at the last moment, then pulling Kenpachi closer to herself, she let off a cero.

"Ken-chan!" Yachiru called from her spot. She ran over to where Kenpachi had been at the time of the cero release. There was no one there. No Kenpachi, no arrancar. "Ken-chan!!" Yachiru cried.

"Hey, don't worry about it chicky, he's fine." Plumeso called from her perch in the sky. "I've got him right here." Yachiru looked up to see that the girl was hold Kenpachi by an arm, he looked a little limp, but not too hurt. "How about I take him back to my friend to heal him. How's that sound?" Yachiru looked uneasy at first. "Don't worry, my friend wouldn't hurt a fly. And I'm not really into killing kids." With that reassurance, Yachiru moved over to where Plumeso was hovering. "Let's go."

***

When the warriors arrived at the small cave, Oscurgua was waiting outside to meet them. "I felt you guys coming. And who do you have along with you?" Plumeso put Kenpachi down on the floor.

"My name is Yachiru Kusajishi, vise-captain of the 11th squad." Yachiru pointed to Kenpachi. "And that's Kenpachi Zaraki, captain of the 11th squad." Plumeso's eyes went wide when Yachiru said captain. _Was he really a captain?_

"Now aren't you just a sweet-heart." Oscurgua said, scuffing Yachiru's hair. "I'll heal up your captain right away, okay?" Oscurgua moved over to the huge man, who was lumped on the ground where Plumeso had left him. "Okay, let's have some healing." Oscurgua put her hand together flat palmed against Kenpachi's chest and whispered incantations in another language that neither Yachiru or Plumeso was familiar with. After about half an hour of this chanting, Oscurgua stepped away. Kenpachi leaped to his feet.

"Where am I?" He shouted. "Where's Yachiru?"

"Right here, Ken-chan." Yachiru pushed past Plumeso and Oscugua.

"Nothing happened to you? They didn't hurt you did they?" Kenpachi asked.

"Nope, I'm a-okay!" Yachiru said, a huge smile painted across her young face.

"That's good." Kenpachis then looked down at himself. "Who healed my wounds?"

"That was me, good sir. I apologize for the violent behavior of my comrade." Cura said.

"Um, don't worry about it, it's your job to fight an intruder." Kenpachi scratched his head.

"We don't work for Aizen-sama any more, we've gone against him, and so have been disallowed to be espada." Oscurgua solemnly said.

"What'd ya do to get kicked out of the espada?" Kenpachi sat down on the floor. Yachiru sat down beside him, looking up at Cura like she was a teacher. Plumeso had heard the story too many times, so proceeded to sulk out to the mouth of the cave. Plumeso was numero dos of the espada, but Cura was much more powerful then herself. Cura was the cero espada. But the part about Cura that was amazing was not her power, but her hollow. When Plumeso estimated the story was over, she sulked back into the cave. The story of that night was not a happy one, and every time it was brought up, Plumeso was in a bad mood.

"So, what number are you in the espada?" Yachiru asked, a twinkle in her eye.

"Well, I'm not going to tell you, instead I'll show you." Oscurgua stepped back. "Oscuridad Lenguaje." A giant mouth opened up in the floor of the cave and swallowed Oscurgua whole.

"That was it?" Kenpachi said.

"No, I suggest you turn around though" Plumeso sighed. As Kenpachi and Yachiru stood up and turned around a huge mouth opened up behind them, and spit up Oscurgua.


	2. The Feather Floats Away

**Author's Notes**

Okay, so I'm new at this....and only somewhat know what I'm doing. If you like the story, just let me know by way of comment/review, but inbox would probably be better. I will try to update the chapters each month, but if I don't I'm extremely sorry. Also, sometime I miss spelling errors, or grammatical errors, so just kindly let me know if I have done either. So I hope you like my story, bye now!

* * *

Oscurgua was three people. Or maybe to be more exact, most of the time, these three people were Oscurgua. The one girl with the darkest skin, normally referred to as Zina casually mouthed the words to a song she had stuck in her head. The second, Thasir, examined her nails in a very intense fashion. And the third, Bifah, ruffled her hair. They all held parts of Oscurgua's original weapon, her ranseur named Oscuridad Lenguaje had split into three parts. The middle section which Thasir held, and the two side curves which Bifah and Zina had. Thasir looked up slightly, and when she noticed Kenpachi staring at her, she looked back down at her nails.

"Ladies, it looks like we have a visitor." Zina said, a slight smile on her face. She walked over to him, looking rather seductive. Kenpachi seemed to get uneasy. Plumeso thought about stopping Zina before she got any closer, but instead she giggled at Kenpachi's facial expression. When Zina was within a swords reach, she gently placed the blade over Kenpachi's jugular. "You better not have done anything to Plumeso!"

Plumeso just laughed. "I forgot to tell you, Kenny," Yachiru grunted at her stolen nickname for her Captain. "They have none of the memories that Oscurgua possess, neither she of theirs." Plumeso walked over to behind Zina and placed her hand on Zina's shoulder. "Not to worry, he's done nothing to harm me." Zina whipped around, and thrown her zanpactu to the floor, embraced Plumeso in a very hearty hug.

"I've missed you, girly! How are you? What's happened since the last time I saw you?" Zina paraded Plumeso with questions, and she couldn't quiet remember the last time they saw each other.

"Nothing much, just been training, getting strong. Speaking of which, you were just about to show Kenny here your number." Plumeso smirked at the knowledge that Kenpachi and Yachiru lacked. Maybe if they knew Zina, Thasir and Bifah's number, they would be cowarding in fear. Though maybe not; this Kenpachi guy seemed pretty tough.

"Why would we re-veal our number to a traitor?" Thasir said, hate in her every breath.

"Don't listen to her," Bifah said. "She's still with Aizen...she can't let him go."

"We'll show you our number." Zina said, pointing to the number written on the bicep of her shirt sleeve. Bifah raised her arm, where a wrist band with her number was. Reluctantly, Thasir straightened up to reveal her number which was on the waist of her full-body suit.

"Unbelievable! You're all the same number!" Kenpachi sounded shocked.

"I think you were supposed to be shocked at the fact that they are all numero cero." Plumeso said, not sure how else to respond. Thasir just rolled her eyes, and proceeded to exit the cave, pouncing like a cat and head somewhere to the east of the mouth.

"Well, yes, cero is a rather high number....but how can you all be the same number?" Kenpachi asked.

"We are all the same person, after all." Zina said.

"Before, yes...but not now. Aw, whatever, this is stupid. Thanks for healing me, but if we don't have business together, we're outta here." Kenpachi got up, Yachiru clinging to his back. As he made it to the mouth of the cave, all three women surrounded him, blade on all sides of his neck.

"Don't move." Thasir hissed.

Plumeso giggled. "Thanks girls....Kenny, you are going to take Thasir, Bifah, Zina and I straight to that boy with the nice hair and all of the other intruders."

"The boy with the nice hair?" Kenpachi pondered. "Ummm...oh! Kuchiki. Fine, I'll take you to him." Kenpachi chuckled. "Mostly because he is already here."

Plumeso was instantly pinned down at that moment by some unknown force. She hadn't heard a kido uttered, but she was undoubtedly bound by a kido. She hadn't noticed the strong reiatsu of the shinigami, so he must've hidden it. "You girls thought that you could take a high level shinigami such as myself. You are all obviously misinformed about the strength of a shinigami. Aizen probably taught you all that you are so much stronger then shinigami, but you aren't." The kido pulled tighter around Plumeso, and her tight braid in her hair kept hitting her eyes. The kido pulled tight again and she let out a gasp of pain. "You scared?" Byakuya whispered in her ear. his breath smelt like a thousand cherry blossoms and she couldn't help herself in closing her eyes.

"Let us go at once!" Thasir yelled.

"I don't think that's under my power." Byakuya said.

"I don't need your help, prick!" Kenpachi said, getting mad at Byakuya.

"But, yes, it seemed that you did." Byakuya chanted another kido, and Kenpachi was unable to utter speech. "Now you're all going to come with me." And with that they were pulled onto their feet and led out of the cave. They followed obediently, but then they had no choice.

"Where are you taking us?" Thasir demanded, not caring much for being forced around.

"That's for me to know, and you will never find out, because it's of no importance to you." Byakuya walked at the front of the group leading them out into the open. Plumeso focused very hard, trying to think of a way out of this. She pushed her mind on all walls against the kido, tying to break the very thin layer it had. Because it had been spread around the four of them, it was a very thin kido. Pushing and pushing, finally the kido broke, but just long enough for Plumeso to break free. She flash-stepped far back to the cave, but then headed south along the wall. By the time Byakuya could've noticed, she was long gone.


End file.
